Bad Blood
by laughinginthebreeze
Summary: She could have at least called him and told him she wasn't worth saving. Post 7x11 & 7x12 Steroline AU FF speculation.
Bad Blood.

She could have at least called him and told him she wasn't worth saving. 7x11 & 7X12 FF AU steroline

 **Yeah, I know, another one-shot, but if I don't get these ideas out, I think I'll explode, but I'm going to start updating my other stories soon after this.**

 **I disclaim. Tvd and tvd characters are owned by Julie Plec and L.J Smith and the CW.**

He sees her and comes running.

Bloodied and beautiful, eyes piercing him for help, and he can't help himself. He is drawn like a magnet, to her love, her hatred. Her sunshine.

It fills him with renewed determination.

He searches the basement relentlessly, intent on pursuing upstairs when he is interrupted. "Stefan." He turns around, and there Matt is, with a steely glare in his eyes that wasn't there three years ago, and a hatred fueled by manipulation and deceit so entangled he's not sure what is true anymore.

"What are you doing here?" He frowns at him. He steps forward, desperate for answers. "Do you know where she is?" He croaks out. His shoulders slump, and suddenly he realises he doesn't care about anything else other than ensuring her safety, regardless of her hatred for him.

"You're too late." Matt says, and his chest constricts. He didn't know Matt could be capable of that dreadful deed, of removing such a precious light from this world, but apparently he's changed more than he initially thought.

"Caroline's safe, I got her out. She's with Ric now. Damon's still inside."

Relief releases death's hold on him for a moment, before the knowledge crushes him inwards and slices his insides.

"Okay," he nods.

"I managed to disable the security cameras so no one can see us out here, but I'm worried that the ones on the ceiling are on a different circuit."

He turns to look up at the roof, distracted so much by panic and desperation that he doesn't notice Matt's movements behind him. And then when death comes calling as Matt jabs him in the neck with vervain, all he can feel is betrayal.

But it's not for Matt.

It's for her.

 **-X-**

She could have at least called.

She could have at least called, and told him she wasn't worth saving before he came barreling in there, guns and blazing hero hair, risking exposure to find her, find her before he found his brother.

He thought she was dead.

The thought had existed for barely a moment, but it had paralysed him, crushed him, almost made him hand himself right over to the huntress, because he was already living in a world without her - being trapped in the stone without her would make no difference.

But the huntress got to him first and took that choice away, and now here he is, chained up, drugged on vervain, and now hell doesn't seem like such a bad idea.

Because it was a world without _her_. And a world without her, is a world without pain.

It's a world full of fear, and that he supposes, eventually that balances out.

Though how ironic it is that she takes away his fear of life, of blood, of death, when he is scared of what he has and will make of her.

It doesn't matter, he supposes, because it's not like he's coming back. Not this time.

A shift of movement; he looks to his left, and there she is, the bitch of the hour, wielding that weapon, that judges before knowing. Because if it did, he's pretty sure that he's suffered enough compared to the suffering he's caused.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted. I feel like there should be champagne or something."

"Yeah. You finally got me. Here I am." He feels like he's playing along to some sick game, where _she_ is not his prize.

"I'm totally not taking credit, by the way. I mean... you came to me." Rayna says. She tilts her head.

"You were safe. In the wind. You played it smart." She muses. "Then you got dumb on me. What happened? I mean, okay," she nods, "we know what happened. I took someone that you love. Damon... and Caroline. Guess that makes two people." She leans forward, smirking mockingly. "Just out of curiosity, which one of them brought you here? Her or him?"

He can't give her that answer, because he's afraid of it himself.

"Fine. Keep your secrets. You'll need something to keep you company in Hell." She says scathingly, and again he refuses an answer. She pushes up from her chair and walks up right in front of him, demanding his attention.

"Or... there is a Plan B." She says, and it completely throws him. "But I know how you feel about making choices."

"Plan B?" He croaks out.

"Yes. Because, believe it or not, I don't actually want to kill you, Stefan."

Now this really is becoming some sick game. "That doesn't make any sense."

"Just take my word for it. I know you don't deserve that mark, but somebody else does. What if I were to tell you there's a way for me to transfer it to somebody a little bit more deserving?"

"It should've been Damon all along. You know this as well as I do."

"You want to pit us against each other. Nice try."

"Except it wasn't her idea."

"It was mine." Then his brother is there, looking more stupid than he's ever seen him.

 **-X-**

It feels oddly bewildering.

The feeling of freedom made more significant by the puckered, scarred mark on his chest, now again sealed shut.

As it turns out, a few days after the whole newscast episode, in which Rayna had released Stefan to allow him and his brother time to decide their fates, Damon had attacked her, distracted her long enough to call the Armory, and Bonnie and Enzo, to drag Rayna back into captivity, and it had taken about thirty people and three days to finally lure her out and take her down, but he knows it can only ever be temporary.

They are all there, where it began, in Mystic Falls, and it's like a twisted family reunion, where all the people he has loved and lost because of one thing or another.

There is one person missing from attendence, and as he thinks about her, she gravitates into his view, standing there, twins still behind her in her car, looking innocent as hell, and then he loses it, heads straight for her so by the time she sees him, it's far too late.

Of course, it was already far too late a long time ago.

"You could have called me." His voice is raspy with tears. "Could have at least shot me a text before I wasted my time searching for someone who couldn't care less, and just told me that you weren't worth it."

Her eyes widen inexplicably. "Stefan -"

"I shouldn't have had to discover it myself." He interrupts. "I arrived there _hours_ after you left, enough time for you to contact me, but you didn't."

Her eyes shift away, before she steels her spine and glares back angrily. "I had a family to look out for -"

"She wasn't after your children." He replies blankly. "She wasn't even really after you, she let you go. You ran. How hard could it have been to contact me? You could have used a pay phone, Ric's phone, so why didn't you? My number hasn't changed."

Caroline glances away. "I don't have time for this." She turns away from him, but he grabs her arm in a tight, suffocating grip, and turns her back around to face him.

" _Make time_." He hisses. "How can you not care? I was willing to go back for Damon _after_ I found you, I sacrificed my _life_ to find you. Do you really hate me _so_ much that you would rather let me die?"

She twists and turns, trying to escape. "What do you mean? Damon was there?"

"She had him too. He came to save you so I couldn't, but he got caught by her and injected with werewolf venom. I was coming for both of you."

She gives the tiniest of shrugs. "I'm sorry about him, really I am, but," she sighs, obviously frustrated. "He's okay, now right? And what you did doesn't change anything. _I_ was still held against my will, _I_ was still terrified out of my mind, relying only on you to come and save me, and then _Matt_ of all people releases me! You couldn't even save me!"

"Is that why you _abandoned_ me there?" He says icily. "Because you didn't know if I could save you? _Matt_ helped her kidnap you and use you until you were no longer needed! _I_ came _back_ for you, you know full extent that I would have, and yet _you don't care._ So," his voice is thick with sarcasm, and he knows she doesn't miss it. "I guess that's a perfectly good excuse, for leaving someone to their death sentence, right?"

"You didn't come back for me the first time." She retorts, and his heart tightens. A memory consumed by fear and guilt, and a memory he regrets having seared into his brain. "Why should I believe that you would come back for me now?"

"Because I loved you!" He yells at her in pure fury, the words pouring out before he can even think about them. "Because it was about saving _you_ , it was all about _you_ , not some sick huntress chasing me to all corners of the earth and endangering innocent children. Nothing would have stopped me now." He wants so badly to kiss her, touch her, or grab her in his vehement anger, to make her listen. Make her _see_. "I chose you this time. And I would do it again, if I knew you were worth my while."

"That doesn't erase your choice." Caroline spits. "You chose Valerie, and you chose to run." She puts on a mocking face, and he has a sour taste in his mouth just looking at her. "And now you're running again. You've ran for three years. It's an easy enough task for you, you managed to escape alive anyway, and get out of Mystic Falls, and -"

"I don't _care_." He snarls. "That's not an excuse when it comes to the Stone. When it comes to us."

She blinks at him. Then swallows nervously, eyes flickering to his lips. Days ago, _hours,_ ago even, that fleeting look of desire across her face would have been something he would treasure upon, but now?

Now he just wants to forget she ever existed. He releases her arm, but doesn't move away, and neither does she.

"We've been at this so long, it's not even worth it anymore." He says coldly. "You just aren't worth it anymore, and I'm finally realising it."

That part of him that cares, his love for her, is snatched away at a snap of his fingers.

"What are you on about?" She snaps, and he looks her square in the eyes. What she's become, yes perhaps, in part because of him, is not a person he loves any longer. It's his downfall, loathing the people that change, but he can't help it. Who she is now barely reminds him of the girl he once loved.

"You once told me that you hated me." He whispers. "I didn't know if you meant it, but now I know that you did, and that you do, and that _crippled_ me in there, but here's the thing," he leans forward, eyes boring into hers, soul pressing against her own, theirs breath mingling.

"I hate _you._ For hating me so much even now, because you _hurt_ me, after everything I just sacrificed for you, and I mean it." He states calmly, then smirks cruelly. "Always remember that."

She blinks several times at him, and then he moves away, reaching for his bag, and the spell breaks. For the first time in years, she looks at him with something other than distaste, as he silently pined for her from afar, but now it's him who won't look at her with love anymore.

"Have a nice life, Caroline." He says.

And then he is gone before he even has a chance to regret it.

 **-X-**

It is eight more years before he sees her again.

Eight more years of hating her, for hating him.

Of course, by this point, he's now free, has been for years, but Valerie was keeping tabs on her, still sending him updates every few days. He doesn't see her as much these days, now that he is safer, they don't really need each other anymore. They were a first love, born from innocent souls lost in the world, and yet whilst they're still lost, they are no longer innocent.

He's in the local hospital, of the low-life town he's been living in for the past year, pilfering the blood supply under the guise of an intern, when he runs into a young girl, who can't be more than ten or eleven, sending her toppling into the wall.

"Sorry, I'm so sorry!" Is all he can think to say, dropping his bag and helping her to stand. The girl seems fine, brushing herself off, but all he cares about is how very familiar she looks, with the big, brown eyes, the dimples around her mouth. He smiles reassuringly at her, but she pushes away from him and barrels into someone, hugging their waist.

"Mum!"

He looks up, ready to apologise, when he freezes, mouth open in shock when he sees that the mother in question is actually the love of his life. Of course. Josie, or Lizzie, both girls are now there, she looks very much like Ric, with Jo's kind brown eyes.

"What's wrong, sweetie?" She asks, eyes fixated on him as she bends down to her. "C'mere," she rubs the girl's elbow. She glances up at him again. "Why don't you go back down to daddy and ask him for a plaster?"

The sisters both head back down the corridor, and all this, Stefan realises, he has watched completely frozen, and quickly picks up his bag, averting his eyes, ready to disappear, to run again.

"Hey," she says to him, and then smiles.

It hits him with surprising magnitude, with the force a brick wall would have on him, and his body commands him to stop.

It hits him all at once. The love he had for the person she used to be. The love that never left.

"Hi," he smiles neutrally, before shifting his weight, to the side. His eyes flick around, looking for an escape route, when she interrupts him.

"I never married Ric." She blurts out.

He looks at her, eyes wide, and she laughs nervously. "It wasn't working out. We're better off how we are now, just raising the twins together, not pretending we're something we're not."

"That's -" he clears his throat of emotion. "great." An emotion he now distinguishes as hope.

"And I never stopped loving someone I couldn't help hating." She looks at him, meaningful, and whilst he wants to accept her words, accept her back into his life, he always had a hard time forgiving, and he remembers her cold glare, no regret, none at all, in leaving him to his fate.

"You realised that a little late, didn't you?" The words come out sharper than he intends, and he winces inwardly. "Imagine if I'd never escaped, and you realised you still loved me, but you never did anything about it. You never saved me."

She looks almost disappointed. "Are we still on this?"

"We never got past it."

"How do you expect to get past it if we avoid each other for nearly a decade?"

"How can we get past something as big as you abandoning me to die for you?" He shoots back. She doesn't respond, and he sighs, almost disappointed, then moves past her, when she grabs his arm, sudden and desperate.

"Stefan." The way she says his name, soft and lilting draws him back in. " _Please_. Just for a minute. Let's at least...talk."

He wonders briefly which desire in him is stronger; to grab her hand, drag her closer and kiss her, or shake her off, and pretend he never saw her.

He turns back around to face her. "Okay."

She smiles shyly, and then sits down on a chair by the wall, patting the seat next to her to join him.

"I'm, um, I'm...really sorry, for leaving you." She says. "I mean, just because I hated you doesn't mean I wanted you back in that Stone." She laughs, but he doesn't. "I should have fought harder to stay with Ric and Bonnie. I should have fought for you."

He chews his lip. "Yeah you should have. But I suppose family is important." _And you were mine._

"Yes. It is."

There's an awkward silence, and he wonders if that's all she wants to say. "Is that it?"

"No." She swallows. "I know that we can't just start over, but I've...hating you, and you hating me...you not being in my life, was... _awful_." She laughs nervously. He leans forward, the wall he's built up against her almost completely shattered.

"I think we both know I never really hated you." He smirks devilishly. She frowns for a moment, and he waits for her to get it, then she smiles, beams right at him, all bright sunshine, as it clicks in her memory, and that's when he realises.

That despite for now, although he doesn't know what they are, he knows what she is to him.

Caroline Forbes. Love of his life. Whom he could never stop loving whilst hating.

His best friend.

 **I hope you enjoyed this! I just wanted a filler since we won't be seeing Candice for a few episodes, and I wanted to focus on Steroline, which is why the whole Rayna thing is so brief. Thanks for reading.**


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